Question: are quasars solid or are they just light emitting galaxys

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  1. While the nature of these objects was controversial until as recently as the early 1980s, there is now a scientific consensus that a quasar is a compact region in the centre of a massive galaxy, that surrounds its central supermassive black hole.

    More info: http://www.universetoday.com/73222/what-is-a-quasar/
    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar

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  2. Mia’s right. They’re more like a galactical aurora (like you see near the north and south pole of Earth). There’s no ‘solid’ part to them like a planet or star but more the result of very high energy particle interactions.

    Quasars are something I used to have to do assignments on when I was at university. It took me a long time to understand them properly. The best I ever came up with was that it was like a forcefield around a supermassive blackhole. The blackhole isn’t really important, but its accretion disk near the Event Horizon is probably the craziest known place in the universe. All the maths and physics that you’re learn at the moment (unless you’re learning quantum chemistry and physics) IS USELESS to understand whats going on. 😮

    All you need to remember is thats its just one crazy place with lots of energy. This energy then powers matter in the accretion disk to go emit high energy particles light like Xrays.

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